Inline printing and manufacture is used for making low cost large volume advertising items, particularly bulk mail pre-addressed envelopes, termed mailers, which contain advertising and solicitation material.
Inline manufacture involves printing a web and subsequently performing a number of successive high speed inline processing operations on it, to obtain the intended format and configuration of the final printed item.
The first operation is the printing of an envelope and advertising format on a continuous web, within each of a succession of identical printed half repeat sections. Typically, a full repeat section is printed with each revolution of a printing press cylinder.
Subsequent operations include applying a pattern of adhesive to the envelope (outer wrap) panels, in each half repeat; adding personalized printing to each successive half repeat section; longitudinally folding the ribboned or folded advertising section of the web, or slitting it into independent ribbons which are then superposed and combined; and, then packaging the printed advertising pieces by longitudinally folding the envelope portion of the web over the advertising material to form envelope packets; and separating, from the web, the formed envelope packets.
These operations result in an envelope item, containing printed advertising, produced in one continuous economical operation, ready for mailing. Two identical advertising mailers, in two half repeats, are printed on the flat web surface with each rotation of the printing cylinder.
In the conventional inline process, each successive printed one-half repeat or less of the printed web, is the web area limit usable for inline processing. Ordinary inline mailer advertising pieces are usually typical envelope size items having a panel width of four inches and a length of nine inches. This typical letter size envelope limits the size of insert advertising panels, to a smaller size panel and less effective advertising presentation, than the maximum envelope size mailer having a six inch width. But, the six inch width envelope allows for only four advertising insert panels, in a one half repeat, even with the large thirty-six inch inline printing cylinder.
Since the inline production process is limited to only a longitudinal folding of the web, it consequently requires two outer wrap envelope panels to be printed side by side in a single one half repeat section of the web.
The new type packet, produced by an inline crossfold method, the subject of my co-pending parent application, is not confined to the one-half repeat printing area of the web, and is not limited to longitudinal folding. It recognizes that a crossfold operation can be made as a final step, using a modified signature printing press folder unit used with large printing press equipment. This permits use of a full repeat, if the printed envelope panel configuration is changed, to position the envelope panels end to end in adjacent half repeats. The inline crossfold process introduced to inline printing and fabrication, the ability to produce a finished piece having twice the amount of printed advertisement panels.
Although the inline crossfold method substantially increased advertising insert contents and market for inline products, it is limited to a paper content of one repeat.